Free Book of the Guardian 3: The Last Mission by Ben Winston

end of the long days.
    ––––––––
    I n his quarters, Chloe got them both out of their armor and stood naked outside the small shower compartment and washed him. This battle had been hard on him. It was at times like this that she worried about losing him. This was the real threat to the guardians, carrying the cost of all the battles and all the death. It had been almost two hundred years since they had dealt with something this bad, and John had taken it hard back then, too.
    He looked up at her. "I'll be fine, Chloe. You know that, I just need time to..."
    She almost started crying again. She hated to see him like this. To the rest of the Kingdom, the Temporal Guard were ageless, fearless, and unswerving in their duty to protect the human race. It was a rare thing to see a Guard reduced like this. John was Chloe's strength. If he were to retire she would too because living without him would be too painful.
    He sighed and gently took her hands. "Shh, love. I'll be fine. I'm not going to retire anytime soon. Our people still need us, even if we failed a few of them."
    "Bullshit, Marine!" Mark's voice was heard in the small room. "You didn't fail anyone! In point of fact, you saved a great many lives!"
    "You weren't there, Mark. You didn't watch those fuckers slaughter those people, you didn't hear their cries and pleas for help!" John said. You didn't hear a mother begging the Tammerain soldiers to not kill her child."
    "No John, I wasn't there. You were," Mark said. "Because you were there, those animals were put down before they could kill more people. You stopped them. Yes, they made it to the planet, and started killing innocents. But you know as well as I do, that is something most Tammerain will not do. Gabby believes they were some type of fanatical temple guard that followed the traders here from that planet. Nothing they did since the moment of their arrival was typical of normal Tammerain military."
    "So? I still failed those people on Haven! I let those animals get too close and people died!" John said yelling at Mark.
    "You stopped religious fanatics from slaughtering an entire fucking planet! Damn it, John, yes they got to the planet and did a lot of damage, but you're not seeing the bigger picture here; that planet is still there, and ninety-nine percent of its population is still alive because you were there. If you hadn't been, that planet would be dead, and that fleet would be on the way to do the same to another world!" Mark countered.
    "No, the Fourth Russian would have contained them, or held them long enough for more of our ships to arrive to deal with them," John said as he got out of the shower, pushed Chloe in, and he began to wash her. "Mark, the fifty-four thousand people in and around Sanctuary that had no idea what was coming; those people that believed we would keep them safe, it's those people I let down."
    "John, you're the oldest living soldier in our military. You're also the oldest human still alive. You, more than anyone else, should know that in any military confrontation that takes place in the vicinity of population always results in collateral damage. Not 'never', not 'sometimes', but always! As soon as the Tammerain fleet took up orbit around that planet, it became a forgone conclusion that someone on that planet was going to die as a result.
    "Your actions, as well as the actions of the other Guardians, helped to limit that damage. You did all you could have done, John. The simple fact is that there was nothing, nothing else you could have done to prevent this outcome. If you turn around right now, go back to Haven, pick anyone in the aide station or the city of Sanctuary and ask them if they believe you are responsible for the deaths and destruction there, what would they say? I honestly don't believe you will find one person that would blame you," Mark replied.
    "While I was down there, I did get a chance to speak to some of the people," Chloe replied. "We were